


Plane and Simple

by rain_sleet_snow



Series: Odd One Out [1]
Category: Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-09
Updated: 2015-01-09
Packaged: 2018-03-06 21:55:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3149660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rain_sleet_snow/pseuds/rain_sleet_snow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kelly Milton goes to boarding school.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Plane and Simple

_Probation_ , Kelly Milton thinks with unwonted viciousness, hauling suitcases out of an embassy car. She smiles politely at the driver, who’s highly sympathetic to His Excellency’s bad back and only too willing to let his mild-mannered daughter drag her own damned suitcases around.

_Probation._

It’s a horrible word, she decides, as they check in and pass through the security checks; as she buys a bento box for the plane (plane food? Inedible.) A horrible, unnecessary word for a horrible, unnecessary thing - after all, King’s School Corus is supposed to be co-ed already, and if no other girls have been found to take up the challenge yet that’s hardly her fault and she shouldn’t be penalised for it. It’s not fair.

Guiltily, she remembers what Connor had told her: that she’s only even being considered because Andreas, Connor and Idris had gone there. That isn’t fair either.

Kelly’s wheelie suitcase turns over like a drunken turtle, wrenching her elbow. Kelly isn’t prone to displays of emotion, but she grimaces slightly as she turns to flip it back over again, hurriedly because - well- her father is short and this crowd is large and it would be all too easy to lose him in it.

She catches her father up as they reach the airport lounge, and he buys her a Coke. She sips at it, and thinks about the rest of Connor’s little speech, said in low conversational tones at an embassy party so it would look like they were being friendly siblings, and Kelly couldn’t breach etiquette by telling him where he got off. In the past years, she has learnt to avoid that anyway – Yamanis: displays of emotion: the two don’t mix – but what Connor had said had made her burn inside and grit her teeth.

_“You’ll wash out anyway, Kels. First term and you’ll be out, simple as. But don’t worry- Convent North will still take you, even if you are useless.”_

Useless, Kelly thinks, useless. She bites her tongue.

“Kelly? Kelly.”

She looks up. “Yes, Daddy?”

Piers smiles kindly at her. “I just wanted to say that your mother and I- we’re very proud of you, Kelly. And...” He hesitated, and then said carefully: “If William Carver doesn’t let you in, understand that it doesn’t mean you’re a failure. You passed the aptitude test with flying colours, remember? And your headmistress from your last school wrote you a glowing reference. You’re a very hardworking and intelligent girl.”

Kelly nods, and looks down at her Coke, only half drunk. Even her father thinks she won’t get in.

She boards the plane and takes the window seat; eats her the contents of her bento box, accepts another Coke, and watches a film. It’s _Dragon’s Fire_ , and stars John Stone, who is... not really a good casting choice, not for a young Liam Ironarm. He’s too pretty, and come to think of it, the plot’s a bit thin. Oh, well. The special effects are good, and there’s plenty of action, explosions and guns and cool Shang moves, so as far as ways of wasting time on planes go, it’s not the worst Kelly’s ever come across.

John Stone goes to King’s School Corus, when he’s not acting in blockbusters. He’s a couple of years older than Kelly, and she wonders if he’s as supercilious as he looks, and if he’ll think, like Connor, that she’s a failure.

Her lips firm and her fingers want to tap on the arm-rest, but she stops them. It doesn’t matter what John Stone says, or Connor, or Mr. Carver, or anyone. She’s as clever and strong as any boy, and she will succeed.


End file.
